I opened Pandora’s box this morning worrying about what I would find. But lo and behold, there were no direct personal messages. Only emails vying for my attention. Some crying to be heard. Others wailing. Yet others pounding their fists for me to open them up.
The one that caught my attention, however, was a message saying that the government had withdrawn the VAT hike increase for this year.
I don’t know about you, but I get shivers when I hear the words value-added tax. What an ominous euphemism. It’s Draconian. It’s George Orwell doublespeak.
This VAT thing really started with General Sales Tax. GST was introduced in South Africa in 1978.
The initial rate of GST was 4%.
The new government from 1994 spiked it up by 1%. In 1994, the VAT (Value Added Tax) rate in South Africa was 14%.
The VAT rate increased from 14% to 15% on April 1, 2018.
However, the government’s proposal in 2025 has been to raise the VAT rate to 16%.
(By the way, the words general sales tax also give me the creeps — because it can cover anything and everything.)
So there we are: the VAT increase has been stopped. But for how long?
With a government spending something like 88% of annual GDP, who knows? They want money desperately.
That’s why the incumbent Minister of Finance booted VAT skywards with another percent.
It’s interesting that two political parties — the DA and EFF — came together to fight a court battle over the VAT increase.
The announcement today is really a joke, because the government has only withdrawn to save face.
But watch out — they’ll be back, trying to grab more money from South Africans, whether taxpayers or not.
VAT was increased over recent years while all the political parties were fighting with each other.
This is the problem: the political parties are all fighting with each other while the government continues to do what it wants.
That is not only the biggest worry — to feed a greedy, rapacious government — there are continual calls to nationalise the Reserve Bank, nationalise banks, confiscate property, and steal portions of pension funds.
Oh yes, one I forgot was electricity. Cost increases of electricity have been won by the South African government, which caused the problem of high electricity prices through wholesale looting of the utility.
Now every South African has to pay most of their monthly bill on electricity.
It’s just wholesale theft all the way.
Look, the rational mind — and it’s hard to be rational in a country like this — but to think that while all of this looting was going on for the past 30 years, the population exploded.
The South African population grew by approximately 23 million from 1994 to 2025. In 1994, the population was around 40.56 million, and in 2025, it is projected to be around 61.67 million.
The population, therefore, grew over this period of 30 years by more than 50%. A lot of that came across the borders from the failed state beginning with a Z.
Today, there are reports that that country will soon be in total collapse and a failed state. Well, that’s rich. It’s already a failed state — so how can it fail further? Crazy, isn’t it?
It just means more will flee across the border into the RSA.
So, for 30 years, there was no development planning for an additional more than 20 million people. Wow.
But getting back to neglect — ah, you know, I think the real joke here is those who take all of this too seriously. These people will carry on as they like, and do what they like. The political parties will battle it out.
Ordinary people will have to just get on with their lives — and do what they can, as the cost of living continues to rise like a red balloon filled with helium and out of control.
